What Guides Us

Care must always come first. This is why the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine is at the forefront of medical education: preparing the next generation of primary care physicians and specialists.

The graduation of the first class of physicians from the Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine’s four-year-old Dublin campus is a historic milestone for the medical school and Ohio University. It’s equally so for the college’s many partners, without whom achieving this landmark wouldn’t have been possible.

With the support of the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation; alongside our pre-eminent education partner, OhioHealth; and with the partnership of the city of Dublin, the college
opened
its Dublin campus in 2014 with the intent to train more doctors from Ohio who would stay in the state to practice, especially in central Ohio and in primary care and other high-need specialties.

Statistics on the class of 2018 demonstrate the college’s success on this front:

Forty-eight of the 50 members of the inaugural Dublin class graduated May 12 in Athens alongside 130 members of the class from the college’s Athens campus. Two Dublin class members will spend an additional year at the Heritage College as junior faculty before graduating.

Almost 70 percent of the Dublin graduates matched to residency programs within Ohio, and 37 percent of these graduates matched to central Ohio programs.

Forty percent will be training in federally designated Health Professional Shortage Areas or Medically Underserved Areas.

Forty-six of the 48 Dublin graduates were recruited from Ohio.

Thirteen Dublin graduates will be joining OhioHealth. Additionally, 11 graduates from the Athens campus have matched to OhioHealth residency programs.

Richard A. “Rick” Vincent, M.B.A., chief executive emeritus of the
Osteopathic Heritage Foundations
and the Heritage College’s 2018 Commencement speaker, played a central role in envisioning the campus and securing the
$105 millionVision 2020: Leading the Transformation of Primary Care in Ohio
award from OHF that provided funding for the purchase of the campus property from the city of Dublin.

“As you get older, you get very emotional as you start to look back at things you’ve had a little bit of influence on,” Vincent said. “To see these students graduate four years later is an extraordinary thing,” he acknowledged. “I can’t help but be emotional.”

Bruce Vanderhoff, M.D., M.B.A., senior vice president and chief medical officer for
OhioHealth, said the graduation of the campus’s first class was a long-awaited big day for the health system.

“OhioHealth is very proud of our long-standing relationship with Ohio University, and particularly of this campus of the Heritage College,” he said. “It’s something that we feel deeply committed to. We really believe that this campus is going to help meet our community’s health care needs, and we couldn’t be more proud of this graduating class or of the work we have been able to do with Ohio University.”

Matt Kunar, D.O. (’05), director of medical education at OhioHealth Dublin Methodist Hospital and program director for its
new family medicine residency program, said If the first Dublin graduating class is a milestone for his alma mater, it’s equally so for OhioHealth.

“We gave more than 50 percent of our slots for third-year rotations to the Dublin campus,” Kunar said. “And we’re really happy that we can participate in the education of this class, while also showcasing OhioHealth to the student, because the goal is to train students here, and then have them become part of our medical community in central Ohio. And the focus on primary care that the Heritage College has goes right to the heart of what we’re trying to create here at OhioHealth.”

Heritage College, Dublin, Dean William Burke, D.O. (’88) said long-term partnerships with health care partners and others in central Ohio have been vital to the campus’s success. “The success of our Dublin campus, and the subsequent graduation and residency placement of our inaugural class, would not have been possible without the
Vision 2020
grant from the OHF, which transformed my alma mater, and the commitment by our pre-eminent community health care system partner, OhioHealth, and significant support of Nationwide Children’s Hospital and the Mount Carmel Health System.”

Dublin City
Manager Dana McDaniel said the city and its residents have followed the campus’s development over the past four years with intense interest and pride. “The community is very aware of, and very excited about, the presence of Ohio University and the college of medicine,” he said. “I remind them about it, but I don’t have to do much reminding. The community has really embraced it, and takes a lot of pride in it being here.”

The Heritage College purchased the 14.8-acre site where the medical school operates today from the city of Dublin. In turn, the city gave Oho University an additional 46 acres of surrounding property to further expand the university’s presence in central Ohio. The Ohio University, Dublin, currently offers programs from the Heritage College, the College of Health Sciences and Professions, the George V. Voinovich School for Leadership and Public Affairs, and the College of Business.

OHIO President M. Duane Nellis, Ph.D., speaking at a celebratory event a few days before Commencement ceremony, said the university leadership is “so excited by the range and type of programs that are evolving” at the Dublin site. “We have created something that I think will be a diamond in this part of the state for many years to come,” he predicted.

And with the success of the Heritage College, Dublin, the university and the medical school are well on their way to that goal, said Heritage College Executive Dean and OHIO Chief Medical Affairs Officer Ken Johnson, D.O. “So many of individuals – from the OHF to our health care partners to the city of Dublin and our faculty and staff – have come together with a shared purpose of training more physicians to meet the needs of patients throughout our state and in central Ohio in particular,” he said. “This campus has exceeded all of my expectations.”